Archie Battersbee’s mum – ‘There’s been many occasions where he’s held my fingers’

Archie Battersbee’s mum Hollie Dance is adamant her son, who has been in a coma for 13 weeks, is showing signs of life and plans to appeal court ruling

ARCHIE Battersbee’s mum has revealed she plans to fight the recent court ruling that her son’s medical treatment should stop.

In an exclusive interview with GB News the 12-year-old’s mum Hollie Dance explained that doctors say her son will pass away soon but she doesn’t agree.

She said: “According to the doctors, it’s any day now. He’s going to give up and that’s what they’ve put over to the court, that it’s just a matter of time and he is so unstable, that it’s going to be at any moment. But he’s not unstable at all, it’s very different to what’s been put over to the courts.”

She added:”If they’re that sure that Archie is not going to wake up and they’re that sure, he’s going to be in this vegetative state… that again, a vegetative state – there’s so many stories out there, 1000s of stories where people have been told the same thing and they come back. Some come back in a vegetative state, but rehabilitation can correct that; that is reversible. Why have I got to stop loving my child because he’s disabled?”

Archie, 12 was found unconscious at home in Southend in Essex earlier this year. However he’s been in a coma for 13 weeks, and this week a judge has ruled that life support for Archie should come to an end.

Mum Hollie added: “He’s responsive. He’s not conscious. He’s sitting in a coma, but people can be in comas for years. But they do eventually wake.”

She described to GB News viewers and the GB News studio that Archie has shown signs of being responsive, including squeezing her fingers. She said: “Yes there’s been many [instances]. This is another thing that was put to the court.”

The court ruling this week is the second time the courts have ruled in favour of the hospital, declaring Archie as dead and that his life support should be ended. However, Hollie has been determined to fight and to continue fighting for her son: “My whole thing, the whole way along is to push for time for Archie.”

Yesterday a judge ruled doctors could lawfully stop providing life-support treatment.

A barrister representing hospital bosses had told a High Court judge that continuing to treat Archie would “delay the inevitable”.

Archie has been at the centre of a legal dispute after he was seriously injured in an incident at his home in Essex in April.

His mother said she found him unconscious with a ligature over his head on 7 April and thinks he might have been taking part in an online challenge. He has not regained consciousness.

Mr Justice Hayden had been overseeing the latest in a series of hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

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He has now ruled that treatment could lawfully end, describing what had happened to Archie as a “tragedy of immeasurable dimensions”.

Mr Justice Hayden said medical evidence was “compelling and unanimous”, and painted a “bleak” picture.